A man accused of the 2011 murder of a student at Toronto's York University that was partially caught on camera is now on trial.

From thousands of miles away in Beijing, a Chinese man watched on a webcam as the suspect, Brian Dickson, allegedly forced his way into his girlfriend's room in Toronto late at night. Qian Liu, 23, was found dead in her room off York University's campus the following morning.

Dickson, an NGO-worker and a former aspiring model, pleaded not guilty to first-degree murder. Dickson and Liu were living in different rooms within the same house at the time of the incident.

On April 15, 2011, Liu was chatting with her boyfriend Meng through a webcam when she got up to answer a knock on her door, a little after 1 a.m. At the door, the suspect tried to hug Liu before forcing his way into the room and pushing her in the direction of her bed, which was off-camera.

Liu became quiet following two dull thuds. Meng then watched via the webcam as the suspect crossed the room to lock the door and turn off the lights. Some time later, the suspect, naked from the waist down, approached the computer and turned off the webcam.

Liu's boyfriend had asked a friend to call the police, but the friend only had her old address. Liu's body was only found by her landlord and two tenants in the morning. The victim's nightgown and sweater were rolled up to her shoulders, and the floor space near her body was covered in blood.

Analysis suggests that the DNA and semen found beneath Liu's fingernails and on her breasts, abdomen and groin area, likely belonged to Dickson.

Dickson claimed that he was at a restaurant on the York University campus until 12:30 a.m. before going home to sleep.